William Safire lays out a guerrila war strategy for the Iraqi opposition to the US occupation (and takes a tortured stab at suggesting a US response). He states as a given that Saddam is alive and orchestrating such a strategy now. “The elusive Saddam plots his comeback Countering his strategy will take guts – and faith”. STLtoday With twisted logic, Safire’s strategy to win in Iraq is to press forward blaming the domestic opponents of the war and the ‘liberal media’ for the American failure in Iraq. He advises that the American public keep the faith that the WMD will be found (“Drop the premature conclusion that if we can’t yet find proof of the destructive weapons, they never existed. “) and not question that Saddam Hussein’s regime represented a threat to the world… or still does; he blithely justifies the “loss of one soldier’s life” (uhhh, Bill, you scholar of linguistic artifice, that is one soldier daily) by counterposing the imaginary “loss of thousands of civilian lives caused or abetted by a vengeful dictator”. Pure sophistry. Are BushCo and its lapdog coalition following his advice: (Wolfowitz: ‘Finding WMD is now secondary’ WPXI vs. Blair: ‘WMD will be found’ ExpressIndia)?

Safire’s last suggestion is the most subversive: “This above all: To end guerrilla war in Iraq, find Saddam. Those he terrorized must be assured the tyrant will never come back.” Is he trying to make the dysadministration look more like the bunch of contemptible buffoons they are? An October administration report warned that a defeated Hussein would be a threat (Washington Post) , BTW. Just as with our inability to find bin Laden, what is crucially important is that the American public forget that we are unable to find Saddam, Bill. Don’t remind them.